No persistence in appvm /var directory ??

[cprise]

I can't get anacron to run properly in appvms because the contents of
/var/spool/anacron disappear whenever an appvm shuts down. This seems
like an oversight in Qubes, as I would expect the contents of /var to be
saved in order for certain applications and utilities to work correctly.

Perhaps var should be re-mapped to a folder in /rw.

[Marek Marczykowski-Górecki]

I don't think it's good idea. For example /var/lib/rpm should _not_ be
persistent (because packages installed in AppVM directly will not survive VM
restart). If you need any particular directory to be persistent, you can
symlink it to /rw either in /rw/config/rc.local (in selected VM(s)), or in
template (don't forget to place appropriate mkdir in some startup script).

--
Best Regards,
Marek Marczykowski-Górecki
Invisible Things Lab
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?

[cprise]

On 10/07/14 17:41, Marek Marczykowski-Górecki wrote:
> On 07.10.2014 21:39, cprise wrote:
>> I can't get anacron to run properly in appvms because the contents of
>> /var/spool/anacron disappear whenever an appvm shuts down. This seems like an
>> oversight in Qubes, as I would expect the contents of /var to be saved in
>> order for certain applications and utilities to work correctly.
>>
>> Perhaps var should be re-mapped to a folder in /rw.
> I don't think it's good idea. For example /var/lib/rpm should _not_ be
> persistent (because packages installed in AppVM directly will not survive VM
> restart). If you need any particular directory to be persistent, you can
> symlink it to /rw either in /rw/config/rc.local (in selected VM(s)), or in
> template (don't forget to place appropriate mkdir in some startup script).
>

I'll try the symlink... but have you considered that /var/lib/rpm should
be the exception? What if I need messages in mail?

[Marek Marczykowski-Górecki]

I think there would be a lot more needs for "exceptions". Also some programs
expect some data placed in /var during package installation - when moved to
/var, you'll need to duplicate that data in every private.img using that
template (wasting disk space), which would be against idea of templates.

Perhaps there should be some documentation with simple copy&paste example how
to make a single directory persistent using rc.local script.
Ah, there is already:
https://wiki.qubes-os.org/wiki/UserDoc/ConfigFiles